Aussie rules – 25 October 2010
First Published Tuesday, 26th October 2010 02:05 pm from Fidessa : Steve Grob
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For anyone that doesn't know, Aussie rules football is a
highly physical contact sport that combines elements of rugby and
football and is a major participant and spectator sport in
Australia. One of the things that makes the game so interesting
(and dangerous) is the absence of an offside rule which makes it
very hard to predict where any likely
'contact' may come from.
Reading the press today it looks like the title="ASX, SGX exchange heads expect deal to go through"
href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/328680f2-dff4-11df-9482-00144feabdc0.html"
target="_blank">Australian Stock Exchange is in the
middle of its own version of this game.
href="http://www.asx.com.au/" target="_blank">ASX
href="http://www.chi-x.com/chi-x-press-releases/Chi-X-Australia.pdf"
target="_blank">Chi-X Australia early on and so was
very quick to introduce a new fee structure, build a new dark
order book and invest in co-location centres. The announcement
href="http://fragmentation.fidessa.com/venuestats/?venue=XSES&venuedesc=Singapore®ion=AP"
target="_blank">SGX comes completely out of left
field, however, and introduces another dynamic to the global
fragmentation game. AsiaPac markets have always worked within
highly nationalistic boundaries typified by workflow and
regulation designed very much to support the status quo and keep
out international venues. A takeover of
href="http://www.asx.com.au/" target="_blank">ASX by
href="http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/marketplace/mp-en/home"
target="_blank">SGX would, therefore, be a real game
changer and could spark a series of pan-Asian exchange
consolidation.
href="http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/marketplace/mp-en/home"
target="_blank">SGX has always wanted to extend its
reach both into Europe and further across Asia and much of its
ambition is centred on becoming the Asian gateway for flow into
and out of the region. A tie-up with
href="http://asx.com.au" target="_blank">ASX would
work at a number of levels as both will use the same technology,
both trade equities and derivatives side by side and, by creating
the 5th largest exchange in the world (according to the FT
article), both would benefit from significant economies of scale.
Despite the industrial logic to a combined entity I wonder,
though, how the average Australian would feel about losing their
national exchange. It was these sorts of emotions that scuppered
href="http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbag/dispatch/en/kir/gdb_navigation/home"
target="_blank">Deutsche Börse's attempts to
href="http://www.londonstockexchange.com/home/homepage.htm"
target="_blank">LSE a few years back as it was
feared that London's position at the heart of European finance
would be threatened by a German takeover.
Either way, it will be very interesting to see how it
plays out. Will we see the deal go ahead and the new entity join
the global premier league or will Australia claim it's
all just not cricket?
